Key Largo - PennyCamp, Slates, Kelly's! 24-Apr-99

The trip started by meeting at my house at 6:00 on Friday evening. We
packed the trailer with camping gear and the truck with SCUBA gear and
headed for
Florida City
shortly after 7:00 PM.

We arrived at the
Super 8 Motel
in Florida City at 11:20 PM. We got our
rooms and hit the hay.

Up by 8:00 on Saturday morning and breakfast at Burger King. After
breakfast, we headed into Key Largo. We arrived at
Pennekamp
to learn that
our camp sites wouldn't be available until after 2:00. So we headed to
Divers Outlet for a little shopping. Next, we went to
Atlantis Dive
Center
. We got there around 11:30, got checked in, and made lunch under
the cabana by the water. The boat got back from the morning run around
12:30. We loaded up our 19 divers and 2 snorklers and headed for
Carysfort
Reef Lighthouse
which is about a 55 minute ride north of the dive shop.

The weather was wonderful
. The sky was clear and the ocean was calm. We
had
1 foot seas
. The
water temp was around 77 degrees
and the
air was over
80
degrees.

Our
first dive
was just off of the
lighthouse
. The reef surrounds the
lighthouse and slopes down to about 25 feet and levels off. After a short
way, the reef drops dramatically forming a wall and plunges to a depth of
70 feet. We were doing this dive at low tide, so the vis was a little
cloudy. We had about 40 foot of vis.
Lots of lobster
.
Lots of fish
. I
did about a 40 minute dive. One dive team reported sighting a very large
green moray eel
on this dive.

Our
second dive
was about a 5 minute ride south of our first dive. By the
time we entered the water for the second dive, the tide had turned and the
vis had cleared up to about 60 feet. The second dive was only about 30
feet at the deepest point. Lots of coral and fish. We found a number of
swim throughs
that were pretty dramatic. At one point, my husband was
pointing into a very dark hole under a coral formation. I stuck my head in
and saw a very
large white grouper
. This is what I thought he was pointing
at. As I pulled my head out of the hole, I spotted something in my
peripheral vision. It was a
6 foot baracuda
, just hanging out. It
startled me a bit. That is what Bobby was trying to point out to me. A
little farther in our dive, I spotted the
largest snook
I've ever seen.
OK, I know the water magnifies 25%, but this guy was HUGE!

As we got back on the boat after about 45 minutes, the snorklers told us
about a school of
eagle rays
that soared past the boat. Too cool!
Another dive group saw a
6 foot nurse shark
. I think I liked the second
dive better than the first - probably because I could see better.

Sean was our captain and Rein was our crew. They both did an excellant job
in helping our divers in and out of the water.

We
ate pineapple and oranges
on the way back to the dock. We got back
around 6:45, unloaded the boat, loaded up the cars and headed for
Pennekamp
. We got checked in and got camp setup. After a yummy dinner of
hamburgers and hot dogs, we all relaxed around our pseudo-campfire (open
fires are currently banned in Florida due to the dry conditions). We used
a lantern. :-)

Up early Sunday for a pancake and hash brown breakfast. 2 of our divers
did a Sunday morning dive on the
Duane Wreck and the Christ Statue
while
the rest of us broke down camp. 2 others rented a canoe and paddled around
Pennekamp. 4 dove the Pennekamp swim area while I snorkled. We saw lots
of
fish and lobster
. This gets to about 20 feet deep. One of our divers
found 2 rings under the swim platform - TREASURE!!!!

We finished packing up camp and were off the site by 2:00 PM. We went to
Atlantis Dive Center and had lunch under the cabana by the water - again.
We headed home around 3:30 and stopped at the Ft. Pierce Pizza hut for
dinner. We got back into Melbourne around 9:30.

A number of us noticed
red bumbs
on our necks and figured that the
Pennekamp no-see-ums had feasted on us. We all used bug spray, but figured
we had just missed our necks. WRONG!

I got this from John. He did not camp with us and he got the bumps, too.
So it was NOT the no-see-ums at camp - it was in the water. He did not
have on a wet suit, so he is covered! Those of us who wore wet suits have
most of our bumps on our necks.

Emily

John's note:

Divers:
Are you covered with little red bumps after this weekend's dive in the keys?
If so then you have fallen victim to the stinging
"Sea Nettle"
. There are
several things that you can do to help easy the itching, which is an
allergic reaction to a venom that is injected into the skin by the stinging
cells (microscopic hypodermic needles) of these creatures.
0.1% hydrocortisone cream is available from all drugstores and will help
relieve the reaction,
creams like "Lanacain" will help stop the itch,
"benedryl" may also help the allergic reaction, but it might make you
sleepy too (its the PM part of excedrin PM)
for those who prefer natural remedies, papain ("an enzyme capable of
digesting protein, obtained from the unripe fruit of the papaya," found in
health food stores and is the active ingredient of Adolph's Meat
Tenderizer) is said to relieve the irritation.
Good luck, and don't scratch or it might get infected!
-john
DISCLAIMER: this is information based on personal experience and should not
be taken as medical advice from a medical authority!